[BN] the know

Body recovered in Lower Niagara River

LEWISTON – An unidentified body was recovered today from the Lower Niagara River, several miles downstream from where a 23-year-old University of Buffalo student fell in at Whirlpool State Park on Saturday.

A New York State Parks Officer spotted the body from the shore just before 3 p.m. at the New York Power Authority Fishing Platform. The body was recovered shortly after.

Although no identity was confirmed this afternoon, State Parks Police have been searching since Saturday for Narang “David” Kim, a 23-year-old University of Buffalo MBA candidate and teaching assistant who slipped off a rock and fell into the rushing waters, after he ventured out beyond the trail at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Kim was walking the trail with a group of friends and his mother who had been visiting from Korea when he climbed out onto the rock and was pulled into the water when he slipped on the steep, algae-covered rock, according to Lt. David Moriarty.

State Parks Police and Erie County’s Air One helicopter had combed the water and shore without success since he disappeared into the fast moving whirlpool of the Lower Niagara River Gorge.

Officers were also searching for a woman who intentionally went into the water at Prospect Point and was swept over the American Falls a few hours later.

Moriarty said Monday that parks police are always searching and monitoring the river, noting that in addition to the woman, they still are looking for missing people from last year and the beginning of this year.